What Goes Into Creating An Amazing Company: Being User-Centric (1/9)

Over the years, I have developed a working model of what goes behind creating an amazing company. As I look to build my 3rd venture - ithinkyouare - the world's 'compliment' app - I thought this might be a good opportunity to publish these ideas

In case these strike a chord with you, or you think of someone with whom they will - the misfits, the rebels, the round pegs in square holes - I am also building the initial team of pirates for ithinkyouare - so do get in touch with me

User-first vs Opportunity-first

AI. Web3. NFTs. The next hot trend

There are 2 approaches to building a business. You focus on 'what is the next hot technology/opportunity', or you focus on 'what is something that people would really want'

I think the most amazing companies are most often built on the second, empathy-centered approach

Rising Tides ≠ Success

In the early 20th century, the automobile industry was seen as a revolution, leading to the emergence of numerous car manufacturers in the United States. At one point, there were over 2,000 car makers. Each one of them was chasing the dream

And people were right to think that 'cars were the next big thing' (They were)

However, by the 1990s, the vast majority of these companies had vanished, leaving only three major U.S. car companies

Warren Buffett has often used this example to highlight the challenges of picking winners in transformative industries.

Just because an industry is set to change the world doesn't mean every company within it will succeed

What User-First Companies Do Instead

The most amazing companies start from a user-first approach and use technology on a secondary level, as an enabler. It's a whole different way to think

Probably one of the best examples of that in today's world is Apple. They are as user-centric as it gets, even being in the technology business

So, The Right Question To Ask

The right question to ask yourself therefore is 'What insanely valuable thing can I build for people, that they would really want'

If building that requires you to use AI (or insert-hot-technology-of-the-day), by all means, use it. If it doesn't, don't worry about it (for now)